Available commands:
store <card #> save current driver setup for one or each soundcards
to configuration file
restore <card #> load current driver setup for one or each soundcards
from configuration file
init <card #> initialize driver to a default state
* Errors while restoring defaults, ignoring

I have no idea where alsactl got that '---' option as all ALSA configurations files are totally clean (for other reasons I did a clean Gentoo install in these couple of days).

I've never tried loading it as a module. I always built the driver into the kernel. zero config and all that.

Just tried to recompile the kernel with ALSA and the oxygen module as builtin, but without changes.

duby2291 wrote:

I don't know what the problem here is but I'd be willing to bet that it gets nailed down as a problem with udev.

Ouch!!! I hate having problems with udev: I tried to make custom udev rules in the past to handle other devices, but always without success and in all cases either KDE or something else eventually got updated soon after to auto-mount the device I was interested in (for example the incoming KDE 4.10 will support the mount of smartphones with MTP), so I never had the need to investigate further.

Anyone has any idea on how I can troubleshoot it?_________________Marco Di Fresco
Silicon Gadget

Try rebuilding alsa-lib, alsa-headers, and alsa-utils then try and run alsaconf and see if that helps out any. make sure that etc-update is run. It may have something to do with asoundrc.

EDIT: Also I'd like to see the full output of lsmod. I've been doing some searching and it seems that if soundcore was compiled as a module, but not loaded then this could be the cause of your problem.
EDIT2: After further searching it also seems that this could be an issue if you have the inkernel alsa compiled as modules and you also have alsa-drivers emerged. The solution to that would be to unmerge alsa-drivers then delete the kernels alsa modules and then rebuild the kernels modules._________________MB: Biostar TForce 6100 AM2 @ 250x10
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3800+ X2 @ 2500mhz
MEM: G. Skill DDR2-800 2GB @ DDR2-1000
GPU: nVidia GeForce 7600 GT
OS: Gentoo Linux 2006.1

Try rebuilding alsa-lib, alsa-headers, and alsa-utils then try and run alsaconf and see if that helps out any. make sure that etc-update is run. It may have something to do with asoundrc.

EDIT: Also I'd like to see the full output of lsmod. I've been doing some searching and it seems that if soundcore was compiled as a module, but not loaded then this could be the cause of your problem.

It is worth a try; tomorrow evening I will try to re-emerge those packages and get the output of lsmod (can't do right now since I have already temporarily mounted back the Creative Audigy and it is 2:15 AM here in Italy )._________________Marco Di Fresco
Silicon Gadget

When I use a pci soundcard, I set the onboard sound (nvidia from
your hwinfo output) in BIOS to either "auto", which means it is disabled
if there is a soundcard in a pci slot or hooked up to USB, or "disabled",
which simply disables the onboard sound on the motherboard.

This works for me with old Soundblasters, cards using via172x chipsets,
and so on in pci slots. (I always build alsa and the soundcard device drivers
into the kernel rather than as modules, simply because I do not use modules.
All hardware drivers are always loaded. There are no "is the module loaded"
questions to answer when things are not working correctly.)

In other words, is the HDA intel driver for the onboard nvidia sound
interfering with the sound driver for your Claro II? Looking at your
hwinfo output, I see "driver info #0:" for the nvidia onboard sound, but
no "driver info #1:" for the C-media device._________________TIA

Try rebuilding alsa-lib, alsa-headers, and alsa-utils then try and run alsaconf and see if that helps out any. make sure that etc-update is run. It may have something to do with asoundrc.

Tried and still both alcaconf and /proc/asound/cards reports no cards. I dont' have any custom asoundrc.

duby2291 wrote:

EDIT: Also I'd like to see the full output of lsmod. I've been doing some searching and it seems that if soundcore was compiled as a module, but not loaded then this could be the cause of your problem.

This is the lsmod with the HT Omega Claro 2 soon after the boot (as I had to change other things on the kernel, I set back ALSA as module as it working fine {in terms of module loading} out of the box with both the Audigy and X-Fi):
http://pastebin.com/uAD3nLHJ

It seems that soundcore is loaded fine with the modprobing of snd_oxygen:

duby2291 wrote:

EDIT2: After further searching it also seems that this could be an issue if you have the inkernel alsa compiled as modules and you also have alsa-drivers emerged. The solution to that would be to unmerge alsa-drivers then delete the kernels alsa modules and then rebuild the kernels modules.

I do not have the alsa-drivers installed. Just relying on the kernel's ALSA.

wcg wrote:

When I use a pci soundcard, I set the onboard sound (nvidia from
your hwinfo output) in BIOS to either "auto", which means it is disabled
if there is a soundcard in a pci slot or hooked up to USB, or "disabled",
which simply disables the onboard sound on the motherboard.

This works for me with old Soundblasters, cards using via172x chipsets,
and so on in pci slots. (I always build alsa and the soundcard device drivers
into the kernel rather than as modules, simply because I do not use modules.
All hardware drivers are always loaded. There are no "is the module loaded"
questions to answer when things are not working correctly.)

In other words, is the HDA intel driver for the onboard nvidia sound
interfering with the sound driver for your Claro II? Looking at your
hwinfo output, I see "driver info #0:" for the nvidia onboard sound, but
no "driver info #1:" for the C-media device.

I don't know why, but that Nvidia sound card is something related to the video card. The real onboard card is a "Realtek ALC889 8-Channel High Definition Audio CODEC" and it is already disabled on the BIOS. Plus I blacklisted both snd_usb_audio (related to the webcam) and snd_hda_intel. As a matter of fact when I have the Audigy installed (that uses the PCI slot too) it is the only audio card active. Therefore I don't thing that the nvidia audio is causing any conflicts._________________Marco Di Fresco
Silicon Gadget

Well, the real onboard sound is actually both, sound support in the chipset *and*
the realtek codec, but that is a minor point. If you have onboard sound disabled
in BIOS and hda intel disabled in the kernel .config, then it should not interfere.

(I was forgetting that your previous sound system was also a pci soundcard.)

If the hdmi sound support on your video card can interfere with
the Claro II and not with the Soundblasters, that would be a surprise.

edit:
If you have the time, try building a test kernel with all of the sound
stuff for alsa and the C-media driver only (no other sound drivers)
built into the kernel instead of as modules. Boot it, and look at
dmesg after the kernel boots for messages related to sound. It
may tell you something that module loading does not. (Test to
see if it works, of course, too.)_________________TIA

All of the modules seem to be loaded fine. I don't know that anything is missing. What does your .config for the alsa section look like?

Just for reference this is how mine looks...

Code:

CONFIG_SOUND=y
CONFIG_SOUND_OSS_CORE=y
# CONFIG_SOUND_OSS_CORE_PRECLAIM is not set
CONFIG_SND=y
CONFIG_SND_TIMER=y
CONFIG_SND_PCM=y
CONFIG_SND_HWDEP=y
CONFIG_SND_RAWMIDI=y
CONFIG_SND_SEQUENCER=y
# CONFIG_SND_SEQ_DUMMY is not set
CONFIG_SND_OSSEMUL=y
CONFIG_SND_MIXER_OSS=y
CONFIG_SND_PCM_OSS=y
CONFIG_SND_PCM_OSS_PLUGINS=y
CONFIG_SND_SEQUENCER_OSS=y
CONFIG_SND_HRTIMER=y
CONFIG_SND_SEQ_HRTIMER_DEFAULT=y
CONFIG_SND_DYNAMIC_MINORS=y
CONFIG_SND_SUPPORT_OLD_API=y
# CONFIG_SND_VERBOSE_PROCFS is not set
# CONFIG_SND_VERBOSE_PRINTK is not set
# CONFIG_SND_DEBUG is not set
CONFIG_SND_VMASTER=y
CONFIG_SND_KCTL_JACK=y
CONFIG_SND_DMA_SGBUF=y
CONFIG_SND_RAWMIDI_SEQ=y
CONFIG_SND_OPL3_LIB_SEQ=y
# CONFIG_SND_OPL4_LIB_SEQ is not set
# CONFIG_SND_SBAWE_SEQ is not set
# CONFIG_SND_EMU10K1_SEQ is not set
CONFIG_SND_MPU401_UART=y
CONFIG_SND_OPL3_LIB=y
# CONFIG_SND_DRIVERS is not set
CONFIG_SND_PCI=y
# CONFIG_SND_AD1889 is not set
# CONFIG_SND_ALS300 is not set
# CONFIG_SND_ALS4000 is not set
# CONFIG_SND_ALI5451 is not set
# CONFIG_SND_ASIHPI is not set
# CONFIG_SND_ATIIXP is not set
# CONFIG_SND_ATIIXP_MODEM is not set
# CONFIG_SND_AU8810 is not set
# CONFIG_SND_AU8820 is not set
# CONFIG_SND_AU8830 is not set
# CONFIG_SND_AW2 is not set
# CONFIG_SND_AZT3328 is not set
# CONFIG_SND_BT87X is not set
# CONFIG_SND_CA0106 is not set
# CONFIG_SND_CMIPCI is not set
CONFIG_SND_OXYGEN=y
# CONFIG_SND_CS4281 is not set
# CONFIG_SND_CS46XX is not set
# CONFIG_SND_CS5530 is not set
# CONFIG_SND_CS5535AUDIO is not set
# CONFIG_SND_CTXFI is not set
# CONFIG_SND_DARLA20 is not set
# CONFIG_SND_GINA20 is not set
# CONFIG_SND_LAYLA20 is not set
# CONFIG_SND_DARLA24 is not set
# CONFIG_SND_GINA24 is not set
# CONFIG_SND_LAYLA24 is not set
# CONFIG_SND_MONA is not set
# CONFIG_SND_MIA is not set
# CONFIG_SND_ECHO3G is not set
# CONFIG_SND_INDIGO is not set
# CONFIG_SND_INDIGOIO is not set
# CONFIG_SND_INDIGODJ is not set
# CONFIG_SND_INDIGOIOX is not set
# CONFIG_SND_INDIGODJX is not set
# CONFIG_SND_EMU10K1 is not set
# CONFIG_SND_EMU10K1X is not set
# CONFIG_SND_ENS1370 is not set
# CONFIG_SND_ENS1371 is not set
# CONFIG_SND_ES1938 is not set
# CONFIG_SND_ES1968 is not set
# CONFIG_SND_FM801 is not set
CONFIG_SND_HDA_INTEL=y
CONFIG_SND_HDA_PREALLOC_SIZE=64
CONFIG_SND_HDA_HWDEP=y
# CONFIG_SND_HDA_RECONFIG is not set
# CONFIG_SND_HDA_INPUT_BEEP is not set
# CONFIG_SND_HDA_INPUT_JACK is not set
# CONFIG_SND_HDA_PATCH_LOADER is not set
CONFIG_SND_HDA_CODEC_REALTEK=y
# CONFIG_SND_HDA_CODEC_ANALOG is not set
# CONFIG_SND_HDA_CODEC_SIGMATEL is not set
# CONFIG_SND_HDA_CODEC_VIA is not set
CONFIG_SND_HDA_CODEC_HDMI=y
# CONFIG_SND_HDA_CODEC_CIRRUS is not set
# CONFIG_SND_HDA_CODEC_CONEXANT is not set
# CONFIG_SND_HDA_CODEC_CA0110 is not set
# CONFIG_SND_HDA_CODEC_CA0132 is not set
# CONFIG_SND_HDA_CODEC_CMEDIA is not set
# CONFIG_SND_HDA_CODEC_SI3054 is not set
CONFIG_SND_HDA_GENERIC=y
# CONFIG_SND_HDA_POWER_SAVE is not set
# CONFIG_SND_HDSP is not set
# CONFIG_SND_HDSPM is not set
# CONFIG_SND_ICE1712 is not set
# CONFIG_SND_ICE1724 is not set
# CONFIG_SND_INTEL8X0 is not set
# CONFIG_SND_INTEL8X0M is not set
# CONFIG_SND_KORG1212 is not set
# CONFIG_SND_LOLA is not set
# CONFIG_SND_LX6464ES is not set
# CONFIG_SND_MAESTRO3 is not set
# CONFIG_SND_MIXART is not set
# CONFIG_SND_NM256 is not set
# CONFIG_SND_PCXHR is not set
# CONFIG_SND_RIPTIDE is not set
# CONFIG_SND_RME32 is not set
# CONFIG_SND_RME96 is not set
# CONFIG_SND_RME9652 is not set
# CONFIG_SND_SONICVIBES is not set
# CONFIG_SND_TRIDENT is not set
# CONFIG_SND_VIA82XX is not set
# CONFIG_SND_VIA82XX_MODEM is not set
# CONFIG_SND_VIRTUOSO is not set
# CONFIG_SND_VX222 is not set
# CONFIG_SND_YMFPCI is not set
# CONFIG_SND_USB is not set
# CONFIG_SND_SOC is not set
# CONFIG_SOUND_PRIME is not set

CONFIG_SOUND=m
CONFIG_SOUND_OSS_CORE=y
CONFIG_SOUND_OSS_CORE_PRECLAIM=y
CONFIG_SND=m
CONFIG_SND_TIMER=m
CONFIG_SND_PCM=m
CONFIG_SND_HWDEP=m
CONFIG_SND_RAWMIDI=m
CONFIG_SND_JACK=y
CONFIG_SND_SEQUENCER=m
# CONFIG_SND_SEQ_DUMMY is not set
CONFIG_SND_OSSEMUL=y
CONFIG_SND_MIXER_OSS=m
CONFIG_SND_PCM_OSS=m
CONFIG_SND_PCM_OSS_PLUGINS=y
CONFIG_SND_SEQUENCER_OSS=y
CONFIG_SND_HRTIMER=m
CONFIG_SND_SEQ_HRTIMER_DEFAULT=y
CONFIG_SND_DYNAMIC_MINORS=y
CONFIG_SND_SUPPORT_OLD_API=y
# CONFIG_SND_VERBOSE_PROCFS is not set
# CONFIG_SND_VERBOSE_PRINTK is not set
# CONFIG_SND_DEBUG is not set
CONFIG_SND_VMASTER=y
CONFIG_SND_KCTL_JACK=y
CONFIG_SND_DMA_SGBUF=y
CONFIG_SND_RAWMIDI_SEQ=m
CONFIG_SND_OPL3_LIB_SEQ=m
# CONFIG_SND_OPL4_LIB_SEQ is not set
# CONFIG_SND_SBAWE_SEQ is not set
CONFIG_SND_EMU10K1_SEQ=m
CONFIG_SND_MPU401_UART=m
CONFIG_SND_OPL3_LIB=m
CONFIG_SND_VX_LIB=m
CONFIG_SND_AC97_CODEC=m
CONFIG_SND_DRIVERS=y
# CONFIG_SND_PCSP is not set
# CONFIG_SND_DUMMY is not set
# CONFIG_SND_ALOOP is not set
# CONFIG_SND_VIRMIDI is not set
# CONFIG_SND_MTPAV is not set
CONFIG_SND_MTS64=m
# CONFIG_SND_SERIAL_U16550 is not set
CONFIG_SND_MPU401=m
CONFIG_SND_PORTMAN2X4=m
# CONFIG_SND_AC97_POWER_SAVE is not set
CONFIG_SND_SB_COMMON=m
CONFIG_SND_SB16_DSP=m
CONFIG_SND_TEA575X=m
CONFIG_SND_PCI=y
CONFIG_SND_AD1889=m
CONFIG_SND_ALS300=m
CONFIG_SND_ALS4000=m
CONFIG_SND_ALI5451=m
# CONFIG_SND_ASIHPI is not set
CONFIG_SND_ATIIXP=m
CONFIG_SND_ATIIXP_MODEM=m
CONFIG_SND_AU8810=m
CONFIG_SND_AU8820=m
CONFIG_SND_AU8830=m
# CONFIG_SND_AW2 is not set
CONFIG_SND_AZT3328=m
CONFIG_SND_BT87X=m
# CONFIG_SND_BT87X_OVERCLOCK is not set
CONFIG_SND_CA0106=m
CONFIG_SND_CMIPCI=m
CONFIG_SND_OXYGEN_LIB=m
CONFIG_SND_OXYGEN=m
CONFIG_SND_CS4281=m
CONFIG_SND_CS46XX=m
CONFIG_SND_CS46XX_NEW_DSP=y
CONFIG_SND_CS5530=m
# CONFIG_SND_CS5535AUDIO is not set
CONFIG_SND_CTXFI=m
CONFIG_SND_DARLA20=m
CONFIG_SND_GINA20=m
CONFIG_SND_LAYLA20=m
CONFIG_SND_DARLA24=m
CONFIG_SND_GINA24=m
CONFIG_SND_LAYLA24=m
CONFIG_SND_MONA=m
CONFIG_SND_MIA=m
CONFIG_SND_ECHO3G=m
CONFIG_SND_INDIGO=m
CONFIG_SND_INDIGOIO=m
CONFIG_SND_INDIGODJ=m
# CONFIG_SND_INDIGOIOX is not set
# CONFIG_SND_INDIGODJX is not set
CONFIG_SND_EMU10K1=m
CONFIG_SND_EMU10K1X=m
CONFIG_SND_ENS1370=m
CONFIG_SND_ENS1371=m
CONFIG_SND_ES1938=m
CONFIG_SND_ES1968=m
# CONFIG_SND_ES1968_INPUT is not set
# CONFIG_SND_ES1968_RADIO is not set
CONFIG_SND_FM801=m
# CONFIG_SND_FM801_TEA575X_BOOL is not set
CONFIG_SND_HDA_INTEL=m
CONFIG_SND_HDA_PREALLOC_SIZE=64
CONFIG_SND_HDA_HWDEP=y
# CONFIG_SND_HDA_RECONFIG is not set
# CONFIG_SND_HDA_INPUT_BEEP is not set
# CONFIG_SND_HDA_INPUT_JACK is not set
# CONFIG_SND_HDA_PATCH_LOADER is not set
CONFIG_SND_HDA_CODEC_REALTEK=y
CONFIG_SND_HDA_CODEC_ANALOG=y
CONFIG_SND_HDA_CODEC_SIGMATEL=y
CONFIG_SND_HDA_CODEC_VIA=y
CONFIG_SND_HDA_CODEC_HDMI=y
CONFIG_SND_HDA_CODEC_CIRRUS=y
CONFIG_SND_HDA_CODEC_CONEXANT=y
CONFIG_SND_HDA_CODEC_CA0110=y
CONFIG_SND_HDA_CODEC_CA0132=y
CONFIG_SND_HDA_CODEC_CMEDIA=y
CONFIG_SND_HDA_CODEC_SI3054=y
CONFIG_SND_HDA_GENERIC=y
CONFIG_SND_HDA_POWER_SAVE=y
CONFIG_SND_HDA_POWER_SAVE_DEFAULT=0
CONFIG_SND_HDSP=m
CONFIG_SND_HDSPM=m
CONFIG_SND_ICE1712=m
CONFIG_SND_ICE1724=m
CONFIG_SND_INTEL8X0=m
CONFIG_SND_INTEL8X0M=m
CONFIG_SND_KORG1212=m
# CONFIG_SND_LOLA is not set
# CONFIG_SND_LX6464ES is not set
CONFIG_SND_MAESTRO3=m
# CONFIG_SND_MAESTRO3_INPUT is not set
CONFIG_SND_MIXART=m
CONFIG_SND_NM256=m
CONFIG_SND_PCXHR=m
CONFIG_SND_RIPTIDE=m
CONFIG_SND_RME32=m
CONFIG_SND_RME96=m
CONFIG_SND_RME9652=m
CONFIG_SND_SONICVIBES=m
CONFIG_SND_TRIDENT=m
CONFIG_SND_VIA82XX=m
CONFIG_SND_VIA82XX_MODEM=m
# CONFIG_SND_VIRTUOSO is not set
CONFIG_SND_VX222=m
CONFIG_SND_YMFPCI=m
CONFIG_SND_USB=y
CONFIG_SND_USB_AUDIO=m
# CONFIG_SND_USB_UA101 is not set
CONFIG_SND_USB_USX2Y=m
CONFIG_SND_USB_CAIAQ=m
CONFIG_SND_USB_CAIAQ_INPUT=y
# CONFIG_SND_USB_US122L is not set
# CONFIG_SND_USB_6FIRE is not set
# CONFIG_SND_PCMCIA is not set
CONFIG_SND_SOC=m
CONFIG_SND_SOC_I2C_AND_SPI=m
# CONFIG_SND_SOC_ALL_CODECS is not set
# CONFIG_SND_SIMPLE_CARD is not set
# CONFIG_SOUND_PRIME is not set
CONFIG_AC97_BUS=m

This article has an operating system independent explanation
of on-board sound and the relationship between the "sound card"
in the south bridge of the chipset and the codec:
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/28

The article uses a motherboard with an Intel ICH south bridge
for an example, but nvidia and amd chipsets with onboard sound
work the same way, and so do the Intel chipsets with a PCH
south bridge. (PCH just gets rid of the north bridge by moving
some of its functions into the cpu and the rest into the southbridge,
but sound support is still in the southbridge.)

This is the kind of sound hardware that is driven by the HDA Intel
drivers mentioned in make menuconfig. HDMI is an add-on not
covered in the article, but I see that the kernel config option for it
is in the HDA Intel section. If you are not going to use the onboard
sound, you can disable HDA Intel in make menuconfig. If nothing else,
this should remove noise from your alsa-info output so you have
a better chance of figuring out what the problem is._________________TIA